Author Topic: Crusader armor  (Read 5037 times)

Offline kinaka

  • Lurker
  • *
  • Posts: 20
  • I'm new!
    • View Profile
Crusader armor
« on: April 30, 2013, 10:28:16 PM »
So I'm starting a new campaign and playing a crusader with dips into warblade. However it seems like I'm the only front line character we have so I'll have to keep enemies away from the back field. My question is should I get lighter armor to increase mobility or heavier armor for more AC.  Also should i make the armor from Adamantine or mithirl.

Thanks for the advice
-Dangerzone-

Offline Nytemare3701

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 1657
  • 50% Cripple, 50% Awesome. Flip a coin.
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2013, 10:32:15 PM »
So I'm starting a new campaign and playing a crusader with dips into warblade. However it seems like I'm the only front line character we have so I'll have to keep enemies away from the back field. My question is should I get lighter armor to increase mobility or heavier armor for more AC.  Also should i make the armor from Adamantine or mithirl.

Thanks for the advice

Adamantine is almost universally not worth the cost unless you are doing some sort of shenanigans with it (Certain kinds of DR stacking for example). As for keeping enemies off the back line, D&D doesn't really have many mechanics for maintaining "agro" like an MMO would. Your best bet is to get a reach weapon, increase your reach as much as you can, and start using attacks of opportunity to trip/standstill/etc.

Also, remember that your enemy needs a reason to engage with you. You either have to be disruptive enough to be a worthy target, or dangerous enough to be a priority target.

Offline kinaka

  • Lurker
  • *
  • Posts: 20
  • I'm new!
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2013, 10:37:01 PM »
I was thinking a spiked chain with combat reflexes and improved trip to lockdown the enemies
-Dangerzone-

Offline Endarire

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 1662
  • Smile! Jesus loves you!
    • View Profile
    • Greg Campbell's Portfolio
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2013, 03:23:27 AM »
With Thicket of Blades!

Offline brainpiercing

  • PbP Game Master
  • ***
  • Posts: 281
  • Thread Killer
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2013, 10:43:14 AM »
My personal favourite is large size, reach weapon, knockback feat (this is better than just bull-rushing due to the hefty bonus from power-attacking with a two-handed weapon), then combined with the usual: Thicket of blades, Shock trooper, possibly a fighter dip to get dungeon-crasher, Combat reflexes, obviously. I would not use more than medium armour, because a bit of dex will help that build. Actually I would just go with Mithral Breastplate.

Before thicket of blades there is always the Ironguard's glare stance to make the enemies attack you.

So, to answer your question: I would go with Light armour, actually, because point for point it's always best. Only at early levels you will be near death, often.

Offline Endarire

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 1662
  • Smile! Jesus loves you!
    • View Profile
    • Greg Campbell's Portfolio
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2013, 03:42:52 AM »
I'm a fan of a Mithril Chain Shirt since it's cheaper and has no armor check penalty compared to a Mithril Breastplate.

Offline brainpiercing

  • PbP Game Master
  • ***
  • Posts: 281
  • Thread Killer
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2013, 05:38:55 AM »
I'm a fan of a Mithril Chain Shirt since it's cheaper and has no armor check penalty compared to a Mithril Breastplate.
This is true. If you have the points for some Dex then the chainshirt is better. If you max your dex with items/tomes then by level 20 you can quite comfortably reach 22, which is also the appreciable maximum you can ever get to AC.

There is of course one better armour for the max dex build and that is the Celestial Armour from the SRD, which has a max Dex bonus of +8 on a Chainmail.

If you notice then the normal best mithral armours allow a bonus of AC+Dex of ยด+10 (+ enhancement). This one has +13! for a total bonus of +16 if you can get Dex 26. Best archer armour, ever, but I digress...

If you can reverse-engineer it to get it without the fly spell 1/day, then it will even be dirt cheap.


Offline zook1shoe

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 4938
  • Feeling the Bern
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2013, 10:47:31 PM »
Chain shirt gives access to the dastana and other one, which can give some great benefits over breastplate
add me on Steam- zook1shoe
- All Spells
- playground

Offline Scottzar

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 71
  • +1 Mouthpick Dentures
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2013, 03:07:10 AM »
You can basically assume chain shirt is AC 6 thanks to OA items, + extra places for defending armour spikes, which makes it alright.

Thalud stone plate is almost always going to be the best option if you decide to go heavy armour.

Don't forget to mastercraft things for the +1 AC and Max Dex.
Assume that any rules statements I make are under full RAW.
Common sense, game balance, or an enjoyable experience need not apply.

Offline brainpiercing

  • PbP Game Master
  • ***
  • Posts: 281
  • Thread Killer
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2013, 03:55:32 AM »
You can basically assume chain shirt is AC 6 thanks to OA items, + extra places for defending armour spikes, which makes it alright.
I was going to say that you can't put spikes on light armour, but now I can't find that rule...
Quote
Thalud stone plate is almost always going to be the best option if you decide to go heavy armour.

Don't forget to mastercraft things for the +1 AC and Max Dex.
Ist mastercraft something other than masterwork? If so, then you may be right, but masterwork does not add these things, it just reduces ACP by 1.

Offline Endarire

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 1662
  • Smile! Jesus loves you!
    • View Profile
    • Greg Campbell's Portfolio
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2013, 04:11:06 AM »
Oriental Adventures offers the chahar-aina and dastana for +1 AC each, stacking with a chain shirt but not a breastplate.  Masterwork 'em (or darkwood 'em for weight) and you're set.

Offline Empirate

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ***
  • Posts: 258
  • I'm not as new as my post count suggests!
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2013, 04:40:27 AM »
Actually, for a tank, you might not want the highest AC possible. That may sound counterintuitive, but high AC just gives the opponent that much more of an incentive to ignore you and go for juicier targets. Going for lots and lots of HP and some DR while still remaining reasonably hittable, on the other hand, will give your enemies incentive to focus on you more. In the absence of a true aggro-drawing mechanic (the Goad feat doesn't count...), a tank doesn't want to be a turtle.

Oh, and I totall recommend light armor over heavy armor any day of the week for a tank. You want to be able to get between the opposition and your party's squishies, and to do that, you need to be mobile. I'd also recommend Anklets of Translocation or similar, to be able to help out where you're needed.

A word on DR: many people are of the opinion that DR isn't worth it for a PC. To a degree, that's true, since sufficiently high DR to have an impact at mid to high levels is extremely costly. Crusaders get more benefit out of DR than most classes, though, since it pseudo-stacks nicely with their delayed damage pool and their self-healing capabilities (tack on a vampiric weapon to suck even more HP back...). Appreciable DR can be found in the Mineral Warrior template, for example: 8/adamantine is nothing to scoff at.
On the other hand, Crusaders have some pretty good maneuvers which grant short-term DR, so you might want to just make do with that.


Offline Nytemare3701

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 1657
  • 50% Cripple, 50% Awesome. Flip a coin.
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2016, 08:00:34 PM »
Actually, for a tank, you might not want the highest AC possible. That may sound counterintuitive, but high AC just gives the opponent that much more of an incentive to ignore you and go for juicier targets. Going for lots and lots of HP and some DR while still remaining reasonably hittable, on the other hand, will give your enemies incentive to focus on you more. In the absence of a true aggro-drawing mechanic (the Goad feat doesn't count...), a tank doesn't want to be a turtle.

AC is an abstracted value anyway. An attack that misses due to AC and an attack that misses due to DR can look pretty much the same, depending on how the attack is described. Same with HP though, where it's possible to have only the last hit point be "real" damage because Up/Downed is so binary.

Offline Jackinthegreen

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 6176
  • I like green.
    • View Profile
Re: Crusader armor
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2016, 12:14:51 AM »
Armor class is more a measure of being able to dodge or deflect blows, hence it being opposed by accuracy.  DR is a measure of being able to negate the damage from a blow that hits and thus it's opposed by how much damage is done.

So if the enemy's attack did nothing due to AC, it'd be more in line to say either they missed or the defender was able to parry or dodge, etc.  If an attack did nothing due to DR then the hit did go through but the defender was able to shrug it off.

I suppose the ideal tank in D&D would be one that makes it look like they got hit and were damaged, but actually dodged the attack.